


Message in the Rubble

by RedPandaPrincess



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-25 04:24:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12028050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedPandaPrincess/pseuds/RedPandaPrincess
Summary: B'elanna and Seven are trapped in a shuttle and oxygen is rapidly depleting. Who does Seven send her last message to?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for all the encouragement on my stories dudes and for anyone who read The Cursed Heart and encouraged me to have it published know that I have sent it off and it is currently being read by a submissions team. Eee!

“ _Ten minutes until oxygen depletion,_ ” the computer chimed.

“-just know I love you Tom,” B'elanna concluded and pressed the button to end her recording. She sighed and looked at Seven of Nine. The Borg woman was still at a workstation, typing furiously. It was futile. Whatever she was doing, B'elanna knew it was futile. They had been on a dilithium mining expedition when an ion storm hit. They'd gotten everyone but themselves out before they'd been buried under who knows how many kilotons of rock and ore. It had been more than 24 hours now. They'd done all they could.

“Seven, do you want to leave a message for anyone?” she asked.

The blonde didn't even look up.

“For what purpose?”

“Well generally when someone is about to die they want to leave a message for the people they care about, their friends. It makes them feel better.”

Seven paused and considered this.

“Naomi Wildman is my only friend but she is just a child.”

“She's not your only friend, Seven. What about the Captain?”

“Captain Janeway is my friend,” Seven said thoughtfully. “...Yes.”

Seven stood and took B'elanna's place at the com station. She activated the recording.

“Captain, we only have a few minutes oxygen remaining. It is highly likely Lieutenant Torres and I are going to die. Our shuttle was buried under rock on Stardate 54712-”

“You're doing it wrong, Seven,” B'elanna said from across the shuttle. “She already knows all that. It's a personal message, not a report.”

Seven hesitated for a minute then began again.

“Captain...your guidance and friendship has meant a great deal to me. Thank you for...Lieutenant do I have to do this with you listening?”

“I'll just stroll outside,” B'elanna said sarcastically. “It's a small shuttle, Borg, what do you expect me to do? Stick my fingers in my ears and make the lala noise?”

Seven turned back to the screen trying to ignore the half-Klingon.

“I never properly thanked you for rescuing me from the Borg. I would like to do so now. Thank you, Captain. You gave me my life back. You helped me to become more than I could ever have been as a drone, more human, more...unique. Because of you I have experienced more, done more, felt more...”

“ _Five minutes until oxygen depletion_ ,” the computer warned.

Seven felt anxiety stir in her stomach. There was so much she wanted to say but she was afraid.

“I don't know what else to say,” Seven said anxiously.

B'elanna looked at her. She'd never heard the Borg woman sound so scared. Then she saw it – a look in Seven's blue eyes.

“Just tell her how you feel, Seven,” B'elanna said gently.

“I'm afraid,” Seven said to the screen. “Not of dying. Not really. I regret I will die without seeing you accomplish your goal of returning to Earth. I regret I will never accompany you to Bloomington, Indiana. I will never meet your mother, Gretchen, or your sister, Phoebe, or your dog-”

“ _Two minutes until oxygen depletion._ ”

“I love you,” Seven blurted and quickly ended the recording.

B'elanna stared at her, surprised and amused.

“Well,” the Klingon said, clearing her throat. “How about that.”

“To borrow a phrase...shut up,” Seven said, but smiled sadly.

“You should have told her,” B'elanna said, coming to sit beside Seven. “Before now I mean. I guarantee you it isn't unrequited.”

“You do not know that.”

“No offense, Seven, but I've been human longer than you have and I've known Kathryn Janeway longer, too. She loves you.”

 

"...Thank you, B'elanna Torres."


	2. Chapter 2

“Beam them aboard,” Kathryn Janeway ordered.

When B'elanna and Seven appeared on the deck both were unconscious. Kathryn noticed immediately that Seven's lips were blue. She fell to her knees and began CPR. She didn't even notice Tom doing the same to B'elanna.

“Breathe, Seven, breathe,” she said, compressing Seven's chest in between breathing air into her lungs. “Breathe, dammit, don't you dare-”

Seven gasped for breath. Kathryn leaned back on her heels, breathing a sigh of relief. She chuckled weakly and felt tears sting her eyes.

 _Starship captains do not cry_ , she scolded herself. _Suck it up or excuse yourself. Don't cry in front of your crew just because you thought...no, don't think that. She's alive. She's breathing._

Seven was breathing but she wasn't conscious. Neither was B'elanna.

“Sick Bay, get them to Sick Bay,” she heard herself say. She watched them go through a haze of tears.

“Excuse me. Chakotay, you have the Bridge,” she said and went to her Ready Room to compose herself.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and kudos everyone! I've been hurricane prepping so it's throwing a delay in my writing. On the other hand the actual hurricane will give me time to write I hope. Even if the power goes out I have an oil lamp and one of those headlamp things. :D   
> Hope all of you are safe!


	3. Chapter 3

 

Kathryn sat in her Ready Room staring at the screen. Her crew had recovered the Borg-encrypted message from the wreckage. She'd trembled as she watched it, even though she knew Seven was safe. When it was over – when Seven said she loved her – she almost cried again.

She wanted to go straight to the Borg woman and tell her how she felt. Tell how much she loved her, how she had always loved her. But Seven and B'elanna were both in Sick Bay being treated for hypoxia.

 _And you can't be sure how she meant it. She might mean she loves you as a friend, as a mother figure...Just because you want her to mean it_ that _way, you can't be sure,_ she thought to herself. _You need to talk to her._

“I need to see her,” she said aloud.

She got up from her desk and checked her reflection in a hand mirror before leaving her Ready Room, to make sure she didn't look as frazzled as she felt. She left the Bridge to Chakotay and made her way to Sick Bay. B'elanna was sitting up on a biobed when she arrived but Seven was still unconscious.

“Why hasn't she regained consciousness?” she asked, approaching the biobed. The Doctor was probing Seven with medical instruments.

“I'm trying to give her nanoprobes a boost,” the Doctor explained. “Her cortical node shut down for approximately three minutes when her body was deprived of oxygen and her nanoprobes became inactive. I've tried an infusion of fresh replicated nanoprobes but the majority are still inactive. There's a possibility if we put her in her alcove that could do the trick.”

“Do it,” she ordered, then walked over to B'elanna. “How are you feeling, Lieutenant?”

“I'm fine, Captain, but the Doctor wont let me leave,” she said, glaring at the hologram.

“She needs to remain here for observation to ensure there are no lasting deficits,” the Doctor said from where he was working on Seven.

“I don't have any deficits – I can still reprogram you into a whistling teapot,” B'elanna threatened.

“Sorry, B'elanna, we have to defer to the Doctor on this...Doctor, could I have a moment alone with Lieutenant Torres?” Kathryn asked.

“Of course. I need to arrange the transport for Seven. I'll be in my office.”

“You got her message, didn't you?” B'elanna said eagerly once the Doctor was out of earshot.

“W- How did you know?”

“You haven't been able to keep your eyes off of her since you came into Sick Bay.”

Kathryn flushed slightly and nodded.

“I told her you felt the same way,” B'elanna said smugly.

“So she meant what she said? She told you? I mean, she didn't just mean...familial love or as a friend or-”

“Captain, with all do respect, don't be an idiot. Of course she meant it. Seven loves you. I'm surprised I didn't see it before, honestly, but she meant it seriously. I could tell.”

“...Can I trust you'll keep this between us? At least until I get a chance to talk to her.”

“Of course, Captain.”

The Doctor came out of his office then.

“I'm ready to transport Seven into her alcove and myself into Cargo Bay 2,” he said.

“I'm coming with you,” Kathryn said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're all safe in the crazy hurricane! It's gonna get bad here tomorrow so I probably won't update again until it's all over. Biggest threat to us is the winds and we're under tornado watch but we have an evacuation plan in order and I have all my notebooks packed and will be stashing my laptop after this so all my fanfics and stories are safe! Take care everyone!  
> ~RedPandaPrincess


	4. Chapter 4

Kathryn and the Doctor appeared via transporter in front of Seven in her alcove. The Doctor scanned Seven with a medical tricorder.

“It looks like that did the trick,” he said. “She needs to regenerate for 24 hours, then I'll assess her.”

“Shouldn't someone stay with her? You're making B'elanna stay in Sick Bay for observation.”

“I can monitor Seven's remotely from Sick Bay. She can wear this cortical monitor,” he said, attaching the device to the back of the Borg's neck.

“I'm off duty in a half an hour. I'll sit with her,” Kathryn said.

“Let me know if there's any problems,” he said with a nod.

The EMH left Sick Bay. Kathryn found a chair and set it up in front of the alcove. She transported a book from her quarters and settled in to read.

Only she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help gazing at Seven over her book.

 _She loves me_ , Kathryn thought with disbelief. _This beautiful, brilliant woman loves me!_

“Oh Seven,” she sighed aloud in the empty Cargo Bay. “I love you, too. I'm surprised you didn't know already, brilliant as you are. Maybe you guessed. Maybe, like me, you were afraid to hope... When they beamed you aboard I thought you were gone. I don't know what I would do without you, Seven. You've come to mean so much to me.”

Kathryn sighed again and looked back to her book. When she inevitably looked up again, Seven's eyes were open, her crystal gaze fixed on Kathryn.

“Seven,” she said, standing. “How are you feeling?”

“Captain. I am not dead.”

“No.”

“I thought I was...you kissed me.”

“I performed CPR when they beamed you aboard, but...I _could_ kiss you,” she said, her voice husky as she stepped towards Seven. “I got your message.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Seven?” she said, touching the blonde's face gently.

“Yes, Captain?”

“I love you, too,” she said. Then she kissed her.

She wanted to keep the kiss light but she felt Seven's hands on her shoulders then the back of her head, burying in her hair.

“Seven,” she said, forcing herself to break the kiss. “You still need to regenerate.”

“I am sufficiently rested.”

“You're a terrible liar,” Kathryn said, kissing her briefly. “As your Captain and your...your girlfriend I have to insist you finish your Regeneration Cycle.”

At the word 'girlfriend' a very un-Borg-like grin spread over Seven's face.

“Yes Kathryn. And after I regenerate?”

“You'll just have to wait and see,” Kathryn said, sitting back down in the chair with a smile. “Sweet dreams, Seven.”

 

THE END

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it through the storm! Haven't seen any major damage yet so all looks well! We didn't have to evacuate so now I have a bag packed for no good reason and I feel like I could use a vacation lol
> 
> I know this fic didn't really meet the M rating buuuut I'm working on one that'll have an E rating and meet any smut-cravings you may have. I promise!


End file.
